FAA data should've been red flag before crash, senators say

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration’s acting head Chris Rocheleau told senators Thursday that “clearly something was missed” by the agency that eventually led to the fatal midair collision between a commercial jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

The admission from Rocheleau came during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee panel hearing focused on the crash in January that killed 67 people. Senators blamed the FAA for inadequate oversight for the congested airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

“In a 13-year period, not a single month went by without at least one close call between a helicopter and a commercial jet operating at DCA,” said Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., during the hearing. “There’s no question of, had this information been utilized by the FAA or others, that . . . there would have been an opportunity to do something.”

Concern over FAA’s oversight stems from the National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report that found the frequency of near-misses in airspace surrounding the airport poses an “intolerable” safety risk.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the investigation revealed that some routes only provide 75 feet of clearance between helicopter aircraft and commercial planes.

In an analysis of FAA’s own flight data, the report found that from October 2021 to December 2024, there were 15,240 instances of “close proximity events” between commercial airplanes and helicopters in which there was a lateral separation distance of less than one nautical mile and vertical separation of less than 400 feet around DCA.

The FAA gets “a lot of safety data,” Homendy told reporters after the hearing. “I’m telling you this now, the next big accident is in the data right now.”

Rocheleau said the FAA has since deployed artificial intelligence to comb through the flight data. But Homendy told reporters later that she was not confident that the technology is the solution. “We’ll see,” she said.

“I wouldn’t just put that on the FAA, I’d also put that on the Army,” Homendy said. “The Army also has to monitor their own helicopters … That is part of our investigation.”

Senators pressed Army Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman on reports that the Blackhawk helicopter’s Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast-Out, or ADS-B-Out, a technology in which aircraft broadcast their position and other data to ground stations and other aircraft, was turned off.

Braman said the Army’s policy is that ADS-B-Out transmission must be off for certain sensitive operations in matters of national defense, homeland security, intelligence and law enforcement when transmitting would compromise the operation’s security of the mission or pose a safety risk to the crew.

The helicopter involved in the crash had not transmitted ADS-B-Out data to an FAA ground station for 730 days prior to the accident, the report found. Homendy added that the system could have been on but malfunctioning.

Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the Army should reconsider the policy that keeps the system off.

“I can tell you, if the Army chooses not to, I have a high level of confidence that Congress will pass legislation mandating that you revisit the policy,” he said. “If today, another accident occurs over DCA with another helicopter that had ADS-B-Out turned off, the Army will have very direct responsibility.”

Rocheleau said the FAA has put in place a memorandum of understanding with the Defense Department and other agencies that use the airspace that requires all aircraft to have ADS-B-Out on. But senators seemed eager for a more permanent fix than a memorandum.

“Whoever said you could fly in this airspace, this close together without a safety feature that was already being required by the FAA, and then giving them an exemption — it makes no sense,” ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said during the hearing. “It’s a series of errors here.”

Homendy added that the commercial jet did not have complementary technology called ADS-B-In, which could have received transmissions from the helicopter. She added the NTSB is running scenarios to determine if ADS-B-In and -Out would have made a difference in this collision.

Another challenge Homendy identified is the inability of the NTSB to make contact with the FAA’s D.C. Helicopter Working Group that includes members of the Army, which is said to be investigating these routes. Homendy said the board hasn’t receive any information from the group or determined its membership.

Cruz added that he is soliciting “concrete” aviation safety proposals in response to the crash, which he said will complement the Trump administration’s forthcoming plan to overhaul the aging air traffic control system.

“I am committed to using the power of this committee to determine if any policy failures led to this crash,” Cruz said. “We must provide resources for the needed short, medium and long term improvements that chart the path to success and sustainment for the air traffic system.”